++MOST ADULTS JABBED BY END OF MAY++

Slip reveals target – now MPs call for an end to curbs before summer

THE ‘vast majority’ of adults will have been vaccinated by the end of May under Government plans inadvertently revealed yesterday.

Tory backbenchers demanded an end to all lockdown restrictions within months as the accelerated timetable was let slip.

Until now ministers have refused to give a specific date for when they hope to have offered jabs to the 32 million in the top nine priority groups, which include the over-50s and the vulnerable. They previously said only that their ‘ambition’ was to vaccinate these by the spring.

But the target was revealed yesterday in a Cabinet Office document confirming local elections would go ahead on May 6.

The Government said it was confident the polls will be able to take place as all those aged over 50 and in the other priority groups – around half of the adult population – will have received at least one vaccine dose by the end of April.

Then in a separate revelation, a Downing Street aide revealed ministers hope that by the end of May ‘the vast majority’ of adults will have had their first jab. Samuel

‘Must start easing the restrictions’

Kasumu, who is Boris Johnson’s senior adviser on ethnic minorities, revealed the target in a resignation letter leaked to the BBC, which he later retracted.

Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Tory MPs, said it would be ‘almost impossible’ to justify keeping any restrictions in place beyond the start of May, given the most vulnerable will have been vaccinated by then.

Whitehall was left scrambling yesterday as the targets were accidentally revealed. In a ministerial foreword to the Government’s local elections ‘ delivery plan’, constitution minister Chloe Smith wrote: ‘Our public health response – not least the vaccination programme, which we plan will have reached all nine priority cohorts by May – means that we can commit to go ahead with these polls with confidence.’

In a chaotic briefing for journaldecisions ists, a No 10 spokesman initially said the document been issued ‘in error’ and had been withdrawn.

However, a few minutes later the spokesman said the plan and accompanying press notice were in fact right. ‘We have confirmed today that the elections must go ahead,’ the spokesman said. ‘The Cabinet Office document is correct.’

Later, Health Secretary Matt

Hancock confirmed the jabs target. In a television interview, he said: ‘My plan is that we should be able to offer a vaccine to everybody in categories one to nine – that’s all the over-50s – by May.

‘Lots of things have got to go right to hit that goal, especially supply, which is the rate-limiting factor, but I’m sure, working with the NHS and everybody else who is making this happen, that if we keep going at the pace we can, then we can make sure all the over-50s get the offer of a vaccine by May.’

However, he added that it was ‘too early’ to say how quickly restrictions will be eased as ‘ the NHS is still under pressure’.

In a video posted on Twitter last night, the Prime Minister said the vaccine rollout is ‘proceeding at a huge rate of knots’. Mr Johnson added: ‘On February 22, I’m going to be setting out a road map as far as we are able to giving everybody some more clarity insofar as we can about how we hope to unlock.’

Britons are now being vaccinated at a rate of more than three million a week, raising hopes the target could be reached even sooner.

Almost 11 million of the 32 million

in the top nine vaccine groups have received their first jabs. If the rollout continues at the same pace, it will take seven weeks to vaccinate the rest.

Tory backbenchers intensified their calls for restrictions to be ditched as soon as possible.

Mr Harper, who leads the 70strong CRG, said the Government ‘must start easing the restrictions’ by March 8, when the most vulnerable in the top four priority groups were likely to have a high level of immunity from their vaccinations.

He added: ‘It’s great news that the local elections are going ahead on May 6 and that all over-50s will have been offered a chance to have had their allimportant first jab, providing the bulk of the protection against Covid, by that date too.

‘It will be almost impossible to justify having any restrictions in place at all by that point.’ The Mail revealed yesterday that ministers are aiming for a major lifting of restrictions in May.